Xinshun 1730

Chapter 785 Conflict of Old and New Interests ([-])
When Liu Yu said that, it was pure nonsense, and it was just a mouthful.

How could the Dashun court have the guts to reduce rent and interest and buy it for 30 years?

But with the political correctness of the Confucian scholars at this time, Liu Yu must not be able to reason with them on this basis.Fortunately, the Confucians of the Northern School have come up with such a 30-year redemption fantasy, using magic to fight magic, and using well fields to fight mergers, at least they can still take advantage of their mouths.

Where is the way out for China? History has given an answer.It's just that this topic is 200 years ahead of schedule. Is there another way to go 200 years ago?
Liu Yu felt that if the first way was guaranteed, then he could try the second way.Can't get through, no matter how bad it is, it can be worse than the foundation after the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War?

It's just that this second path is somewhat unrighteous.

For example, in the current Songjiang Mansion, what constitutes "progress"?
Small farmers went bankrupt and went to work in factories. They really couldn't tolerate Nanyang chopping sugarcane and rubbing cinnamon, or were forced to go to Nanyang to reclaim their debts.

This... is "progress".

There is skill in driving small farmers into bankruptcy.

Don't be too hasty. If you are too hasty, Dashun will be completely reactionary, and the power of the new class is simply not capable of suppressing a peasant uprising that is larger than that in the late Ming Dynasty.

Take your time, little by little.

For example, the low food prices in Songjiang Prefecture, such as the currency tax in Songjiang Prefecture, have gradually made small farmers lose their way of life.

Either go to the city to work as a hired worker; or be contracted as a contract slave...or be called a contract long-term worker, because the law of Dashun prohibits slavery, so you can't be called a slave, you have to be a long-term worker, and then go to Nanyang to work.

If the people are not forced to have no way out, who is willing to leave their hometown and go to Nanyang, where the death rate is extremely high?

But you can't force too many people to nowhere at once, because if you force too much at once, there is another way of "eating his mother, drinking his mother, and not paying food after equalizing the land".

This requires policymakers to have more sophisticated means of governance.

But for sure, there is no policy of rent reduction and interest rate reduction for 30 years.

All in all, what Liu Yu and these gentry said was simply too much to do.

These mouth-watering words frightened these gentry.We all know that Liu Yu's reputation is not good, he behaves like a fool, and the emperor favors him, who knows if he can really do such a "disaster for the country and the people"?
Everyone knows that Dashun dares not to have a land to the tiller.

However, the matter of permanent tenant rent reduction has been called by the bottom all these years.In the late Ming Dynasty, the uprisings that erupted in order to fight for permanent tenancy rights and reduce rent and interest rates were also concentrated in the south.

Over the years, Dashun’s idols have made the sacrifice of King Ping harmless. Although the radical idea of ​​eradicating the difference between rich and poor in the world has been curbed, calls for a more benevolent permanent tenant and rent reduction have been circulating.

The rent reduction of permanent tenants is okay, but the 30-year redemption policy will completely dig down the roots of the gentry all over the world.

But logically speaking, there is no way to refute it.

Because in their view, those big Confucians with problematic brains in the north, such as Yan Xizhai, Li Gangzhu, etc., their ultimate goal is to restore Jingtian.

The 30-year redemption is only a transition for the recovery of Jingtian.

It is a process of "If you can be well, you will be well, if you can't be well, you will be equal".

As a Confucian scholar, who can say that Ida is not the ultimate ideal?Under the ultimate ideal of Jingtian, the 30-year redemption proposed by the great Confucians of the Northern School, the land to the tiller, the sharing of the fields between the heavens and the earth, and so on, are in this special Confucian bourgeoisie who seems to Liu Yu to be somewhat utopian. Under the ideological system of the small peasant feudal society, it cannot be said that they are wrong.

Some people even proposed some excessive measures.

In addition to Yan Xizhai and Li Gangzhu's redemption law and permanent tenant inheritance law, the rest of the school also put forward some very brain-opening ideas.

For example, increasing the number of official lands, lowering taxes on official lands, and heavy taxes on private lands, so that people will turn their private lands to official lands.

This is obviously inspired by the practice of small peasants joining gentry in the late Ming Dynasty.

Another example is strict grading of the status of scholars, farmers, businessmen, farmers are farmers, craftsmen are craftsmen, businessmen are businessmen, only farmers can farm land, and the status of businessmen cannot buy land, etc.

This is inspired by vintage.

Or, return all the land to the government, and engage in a method similar to differential land rent.

But they have only studied these scriptures and have no knowledge of economics. These brainstorming ideas are suitable for writing into the description of heaven on earth, but not suitable for guiding practice.

In a word, their ideas are all nonsense.

In the end, it must be the patriarchal system of agriculture and the guild system of handicrafts.

To use the more euphemistic evaluation of later generations, this is called "subjective utopian socialists, objective reactionaries".

And it's the kind that is downright reactionary and ready to go back to the early days of feudal society.

However, this kind of reactionary fantasy is a big killer on Dashun's side. It is most useful to scare the gentry, and it is neither a "heretic" nor a "heresy", but it can angrily denounce Song Ming Neo Confucianism The true fundamentalist, retro Confucianism.

Since what you read are all scriptures from 2000 years ago, whoever goes back to ancient times will be the most Confucian.

An older gentry had also read the books on Confucianism of the Northern School, and hurriedly said: "Jing Hou is joking. Since the Qin Dynasty opened the fields and broke the well fields, the land is privately owned, and the father dies and the son succeeds. This is the rule for thousands of years. The theory of renting and renting for 30 years for redemption and purchase is really not understood by the Confucian scholars in the north. They speak nonsense and are all lies. In this way, how is it different from robbery? Isn't this contributing to the corruption of the world?"

"As for the rent, I am willing to do what you like. It is not forced. If you think it is too expensive, you don't have to rent it. It is really out of the question for you to do what you want."

"If you do this, you will rob the wealth of the rich and cause chaos in the world."

"What we want is to ban the import of rice, so as to save the lives of the common people. In this way, the country will not be in turmoil, the community will not be endangered, and the grievances of the common people can be dispelled with a clear letter from the court."

"Governing a big country is like cooking small fish. How can radical politics be possible?"

"Agriculture is the foundation of the country, and business is the end of the people. Now it is making businessmen profit and small farmers difficult. I am afraid it is not good governance. Once the foundation of the country is shaken, this..."

The old squire said that he was concerned about the country and the people, but in his heart he was really worried about the country and the people.From a moral point of view, they are not necessarily all bad people, and they do not necessarily have no compassion, benevolence and righteousness.

However, the feudal landlord coat of arms on their buttocks can't be wiped clean.

This old gentry is not a big landlord in Songjiang Mansion, with only more than 900 mu of land.

And it's not the rotten land in Shanghai County, the seaside salt water land, but the land in Songjiang.On average, eight buckets of rent can be collected per mu of land.

The annual rice rent is more than 700 shi.

He is still quite moral, and there is no such thing as big fights in and small fights out, and he just collects rent according to normal rules.

A few years ago, at least in his impression, before Liu Yu started to toss about overseas trade, his life was very good.

Because of the influx of a large amount of American silver, the price of food in Dashun has been on a continuous upward trend since the end of Ming Dynasty.

Especially when Liu Yu went to Japan to send rice in exchange for a trade license, Songjiang Prefecture also suffered from the catastrophe that affected the coast of the East China Sea, so that when rice was the most expensive, it reached 4 taels and 6 yuan a stone.

The rent of these 700 shi rice is 3000 taels of silver.

However, with the advancement of Dashun’s navigation, astronomy, shipbuilding, and a large amount of silver, investment has been tightened, as well as the development of the Ezo area in the northeast, the investment in the Liaodong Iron Mine and the Gyeonggi Coal Mine, and the coal mines that rely on the sea. Due to capital transfers such as the establishment of glass factories, etc., the price of rice in Songjiang Prefecture has dropped a lot in recent years.

The "Dongyang wheat" mentioned in the ballad is actually the grain of Liaodong or Ezo.

Nanyang rice is not entirely Nanyang rice, but some of it is actually Taiwanese rice.

Songjiang has gradually crowded out the position of Guangzhou as a foreign trade center. At the same time, the Yangtze River estuary area is also the starting point for the pilot sea transportation of rice.

All this has given Songjiang Prefecture unique conditions, and food prices have continued to decline.Coupled with the imperial court's tax-free policy on rice imports, when the cheapest rice has been in the past few years, there have been waves of low prices of seven renminbi and one stone.

The same rent of 700 shi can be sold for 3000 taels of silver at the most expensive time.

When it was the cheapest in the past few years, it could only be sold for 500 taels.

3000 becomes 500, anyone will complain.

This old gentleman is also a very traditional orthodox village sage.

In addition to rent, the income is some usury.

Very orthodox, very old-fashioned.

Therefore, with the great development of industry and commerce in Songjiang Prefecture, various joint-stock companies have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. This old gentry thinks that this is an evil way and does not participate.

Rent collection and usury are orthodox.It is heresy to engage in industry and commerce and invest in shares.

Therefore, the times are developing, but the old man can't keep up, and he naturally feels the impact of food price fluctuations on him.

And even if it is to lend usury to small farmers, it will also be affected by food prices.Grain prices fell, and tenant farmers could not afford to repay their loans.

I couldn't repay the loan, and I had a little bit of land, but I sold it.Nothing but strength.In the end, he is a debt slave, and the proceeds of his work return to the master's family.

But the price of food is low, even if all the income from the work goes to the owner's family, it is not much money.

Those who trade grain here are all big businessmen, and many of them lead the task of transporting grain to the imperial court.These businessmen are really hateful anyway, they are greedy for profit, and every year during the grain harvest season, they will try their best to lower the price of grain.

The industry and commerce in Songjiang Mansion are indeed developing, but these gentry class really feel that their interests have been damaged.

If there is no Dongyang wheat and Nanyang rice, of course they support the development of Songjiang's industry and commerce.

As a large number of people entered the city to do work, the food demand also increased.With the development of industry and commerce, there is more silver, and the demand for grain has increased. Of course, the price of grain has increased.

The problem is that the development of Dashun's navigation is a bit fast, and the rule of "not selling for thousands of miles" has been broken in 20 years.Industry and commerce have developed, but the transportation industry has also developed. Instead of rising, food prices have dropped a little, maintaining a space of eight yuan to one tael.

Really uncomfortable.Decent living is also increasingly affected.

(End of this chapter)